North Tonawanda Common Council welcomes back president, honors heroic students

Fri, Mar 4th 2016 10:25 am

By Mike Pidanick

Contributor

A familiar face was back in place
at Tuesday's North Tonawanda Common Council meeting.

North Tonawanda Common Council
President Phillip "Russ" Rizzo returned after missing the past two meetings due
to major health issues. The well-respected president still has a lot of
treatments ahead, but he was back in his seat for the bimonthly meeting at City
Hall.

"Welcome back, Mr. president, we
did miss you," Alderman-at-Large Robert Peccoraro said. "It wasn't the same
without you, that's for sure."

The 82-year-old Rizzo was
diagnosed with brain cancer after falling ill in early February. He had two
surgeries. After a rough month - made a little better by the overwhelming
support he received from his community - Rizzo was glad to be back.

"I lost February," Rizzo said. "I
don't know where it went. ... How I lost it and where I lost it is a lot of
hearsay, but I did hear a lot of hearsay. Thank you to all the people that sent
me cards, letters, prayers, phone calls. I even got cards from people that I
didn't even think liked me. I'm very grateful to my colleagues, very grateful
to all the residents of the First Ward, and I'm very thankful to be living in
North Tonawanda with all you nice people."

Alderwoman-at-Large Cathy Schwandt
controlled the meetings during Rizzo's absence, but it was clear the public and
the board was pleased to see the president back in place.

"Russ Rizzo, it's great to have
you back," City Attorney Katherine Alexander said. "Alderwoman Schwandt did a
great job filling in, but she's no Russ Rizzo, so we're happy to have you
back."

Rizzo got to experience some of
North Tonawanda's finest citizens upon his return.

The Common Council recognized two
local heroes - North Tonawanda High School juniors Anthony Minardi and Shawn
Edim - who acted quickly to help an elderly woman, living alone and using a
walker, who had fallen in her garage on a cold Feb. 10 evening and was unable
to get up.

"This is one of great things you
get to do when you're part of city government and that's to recognize the
people in the community that do great things," Mayor Arthur G. Pappas said. "If
it wasn't for these young men finding her and calling 911, this could have
resulted in a very serious situation with the extreme cold temperature. These
young men heard her calling for help and, instead of doing what many people
unfortunately do, and just say, 'I don't know what that was,' they didn't walk
away. They followed the sound, found what had happened and called for help."